FAIRCHILD KINDERGARTEN - A NATURAL CHOICE FOR LEARNING

By ITS Education Asia

Fairchild Kindergarten has opened in Sai Ying Pun, offering programs for children from age 1 to 5 years (up to K2). K3 will be offered in the 2018 school year.

This is Fairchild’s second educational venue, with its very successful early learning centre, Fairchild Junior Academy in Tin Hau, already celebrating its first anniversary. The opening of the EDB licensed kindergarten, is another milestone in Fairchild’s long-term ambition to develop a pre-K to G12 through-train school system in Hong Kong, connected to leading schools and universities in Canada and throughout the world.

Fairchild is committed to providing great learning opportunities in natural environments that promote a child’s innate instinct to play, inquire and learn. Having grown up in Canada with a forest for a backyard, the Managing Director, Joseph Fung set the design team the task to bring ‘the outdoors in’ within an urban setting. When you enter a Fairchild campus, you will notice the warmth, calmness and beauty that emanates from the architectural use of natural elements that include daylight, wood, water, sand and soil.

At Fairchild Kindergarten, from the ground floor entrance, take the wooden ‘discovery’ stairs to the first floor reception area to discover a breath-takingly open, bright and far-stretching centre with 6 classrooms, a water-play area, a sensory and creative arts area, a STEM shared discovery area and a custom built indoor treehouse playground. There are corners and stations to fuel any child’s imagination, filled with natural, non-toxic, tactile materials such as feathers, shells, wooden blocks, silks, gemstones and numerous other open-ended play resources and manipulatives,

The curriculum at Fairchild is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to learning. In Reggio, the environment is very important as children are supported to explore and discover in the sensory rich surroundings. This exploration helps a child to unearth his or her own interests, and these are respected and facilitated by the educators, honouring the right of the child to evolve his or her own learning path. Whilst from the outside this may sound unstructured, Fairchild educators plan every session in the greatest detail, so that they are age and interest appropriate, to impact each individual child in a very positive way.

At Fairchild, the children’s work is all play and the curriculum is also guided and supported by a combination of the best of the British Columbia and Ontario (Canada) Early Learning and Kindergarten Frameworks and the Early Years Foundation Stage from the United Kingdom.

Fairchild’s educators are specialists in early year education, with a diverse array of backgrounds and a wealth of experiences. Led by Head of Education, Dave McMaster and Head of Early Childhood Learning, Kathy Nutting, Fairchild educators continually seek to improve and advance educational methods for childhood development. Fairchild has already forged strategic partnerships with schools and universities in Canada to advance learning through new teaching methods and techniques based on sound research studies. Exciting collaborations are also afoot with the Education Faculty of Hong Kong University.

Classes at Fairchild Kindergarten currently cater for children aged between 1 and 4 years with extension activities including Spring and Summer Camps, Mandarin, Little Muse Music & Movement and Little STEM coding classes. When at full capacity Fairchild Kindergarten will have 12 educators offering programs for children aged 2 to 6 years.

Registrations are now being invited for K1 and K2 classes to commence in August this year. Fairchild Kindergarten is easily accessed by MTR (Exit B1, HKU on Island Line) with public parking directly adjacent.

At Fairchild, educators and parents partner together to support the students. Having a clear understanding of the learning philosophy is very important and Fairchild encourages parents to join them for Open House, to sign up for a free trial class, or to drop into either campus to experience the school in action, any Wednesday or Friday morning between 9 and 11am for an informal ‘Weekday Walk-through’.